Guy Bastable speaks to The Times on new Libor European tax scandal

Guy Bastable speaks to The Times on new Libor European tax scandal

BCL partner Guy Bastable has been quoted in The Times’ article entitled “City in spotlight over new Libor European tax scandal”.

Here are extracts from the article:

City lawyers predict that it will not be long before London is hit by the aftershocks of an alleged tax evasion scheme that is understood to have cost European treasuries €55 billion.

Martin Shields and Nicholas Diable, two British investment bankers, are on trial in Germany accused of helping to facilitate the so-called cum-ex trading scheme, which exploited a tax loophole until it was closed in 2012.

Shields, who is co-operating with prosecutors, said that the cum-ex schemes were practised on an “industrial scale”. The name derives from Latin — cum meaning with and ex meaning without — and refers to stocks with and without dividends.

Guy Bastable at BCL Solicitors says that the debate is complex. “The big question is whether the trading was intrinsically criminal, or whether it was only criminal if conducted in a particular way,” he says. He believes that eminent tax and legal experts may have advised that the trading could be undertaken entirely properly.

 

This article was originally published by The Times on 5th December 2019. You can read the full article on their website or download as a pdf here.

Guy Bastable is a partner at BCL, specialising in corporate crime, financial crime, regulatory investigations, AML/ABC compliance, and Coroner’s inquests. He is recognised as a leading lawyer in the UK by Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500. Guy has particular expertise in crisis management, internal investigations, corporate and director liability, and dispute resolution, focussing on all types of fraud, bribery and corruption, FCA investigations (insider dealing and market abuse), cartels and price fixing, money laundering, corporate manslaughter, health and safety, fire safety, food safety and hygiene, environmental protection, consumer protection, trading standards, and Coroner’s inquests.